Restaurants turn to robots to combat labor shortage
When unemployment is low and demand for labor is high, it’s harder for restaurants to find people willing to work the cash register or mop the floors.
For years the food service sector has have warned that mandating higher wages for workers would force employers to replace people with robots.
It appears the robots are finally coming. However, they’re arriving not to replace people, but because there simply aren’t enough people interested in restaurant jobs.
When unemployment is low and demand for labor is high across all sectors, it’s harder and harder for restaurants to find people willing to work the cash register or mop the floors.
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There are 1.6 million more restaurant employees now than there were five years ago and fast food restaurants employ an average of 18.4 people, up from 17.4 in 2007, at the beginning of the Great Recession.
And yet, despite robust hiring, there are also a record number of vacancies: 844,000 as of April, according to the Department of Labor.
The unemployment rate among restaurant workers is higher than the national average –– 6 percent –– but it is still the lowest it’s ever been, according to at least one expert who talked to the Wall Street Journal. The low joblessness rate among food workers suggests that the machines aren’t replacing employees; they’re simply filling the void left by those who have left the industry.
“I’ve never seen the labor market this tight,” Scott Murphy, chief operating officer for Dunkin’ Donuts U.S., tells the Journal. “We spend a lot of time training people and a month later they walk out the door.”
Employers see robots not just as a way to make up for the shortage of human labor, but as a way to make workers happier with their jobs by getting the machines to do more of the boring or unpleasant work.
A representative for Arby’s tells the Journal that investing in more sophisticated ovens has allowed the chain to allocate more of their human labor to dealing with customers, something that computers still struggle to do effectively.
Similarly, Alexandra Guajardo, a supervisor at Dunkin’ Donuts, says she is more likely to stay in her job because of the help she’s gotten from her robotic colleagues.
“I don’t have to constantly be worried about other smaller tasks that were tedious,” she said. “I can focus on other things that need my attention in the restaurant.”